Spanish online gambling revenues took a big hit in Q2 2015 with nearly every sector reporting losses.
A report issued by the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) laid bare a dismal few months for Spanish facing operators.
Across the board, Spanish online gambling revenue was down a massive 6.3%. Licensed operators pulled in just €66.7 million ($74 million USD) from March-May.
Things were so bad that even the Spanish gaming verticals that seemed to be thriving still wound up as losers. Sports betting sites, for example, saw player stakes rise a solid 51%. Unfortunately, Iberian punters came out on top enough to drive revenue down by 2.3%.
On the bright side of the sports betting sector, live betting revenues actually showed some gain with operators reporting €22.3 million ($24.7 million USD) coming in the door.
Things were no better on the normally reliable poker end of the business. Revenue in that sector fell to just €14.4 million ($16 million) – that’s down 6.6% over the previous year.
The one bright spot for the industry as a whole came from the burgeoning casino sector. Thanks to the long-delayed introduction of slots, that particular sector saw revenue leap to €14.6 million ($16.22 million USD), up 59.1% from Q2 2014.
News that the Spanish online gambling industry is not particularly robust won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been following events in Spain over the past few years.
The Spanish government has seriously dragged its feet on gambling liberalization in a desperate bid to hang on to reliable tax revenue streams. In doing so, they’ve imposed a very oppressive licensing process and tax schedule on operators that’s clearly not paying off.
